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National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79)

Industries

Created variables

  • CPSIND70: 1970 Industry classifications for CPS or current/most recent job (for CPS job from 1979-1993)
  • INDALL-EMP.#: 1970 Industry classifications for non CPS jobs (for non CPS jobs from 1979-1993)
  • INDALL-EMP.#: 1970 Industry classifications for all jobs (for CPS job and non-CPS jobs from 1994-2000)
  • INDALL-EMP.#: 2000 Industry classifications for all jobs (for CPS job and non-CPS jobs from 2002 forward).

Important information: Using industries data

  • "Employer" is the unit for which industries are asked in the NLSY79. Changes in industry are not asked directly but rely on the accuracy of coding across survey years. Be careful in making inferences about industry mobility as miscoding is present. When industry codes for the same employer in adjacent interview years are compared (see Work History Data for more information on linking employers across rounds), it has been found that respondents use slightly different words to describe their industry and coders may interpret the same words in different ways in different years. When one code is missing, industry descriptions are used in creating occupational codes and vice versa. Therefore, workers who change industry, even though they stay in the same firm, may generate changes in occupational codes. This problem was reduced significantly when the survey started confirming carrying forward industry information in 1994.
  • The 1979 industry variables for Job #1 (the CPS job) are only blank placeholders, due to the structure of the job history and "CPS" sections in the initial survey year (1979). The information is contained in the CPS section, but these variables were used as placeholders in anticipation of the future structure of the Employer Supplement.
  • McClaskie (1988) analyzed the extent of match between the three-digit industry codes assigned during 1979-86 for respondents who had not changed jobs since the previous interview. These codes should theoretically match if no respondent or coding error was present. This analysis found two- and three-digit matches of approximately 80 percent for most years studied.
Year(s) Universe
1979-1980 All current jobs from which R was not laid off in CPS section; other jobs that are government-sponsored part-time or summer jobs, government sponsored jobs for those not in regular school, part of a tax credit program or any other government sponsored program in employer supplement; other jobs R is > 15 years of age & >= 20 hours/week & >= 9 weeks worked since date of last interview in employer supplements
1981 All current jobs from which R was not laid off in CPS section; other jobs that are government-sponsored part-time or summer jobs, government sponsored jobs for those not in regular school, part of a tax credit program or any other government sponsored program in employer supplement; other jobs >= 20 hours/week & >= 9 weeks worked since date of last interview in employer supplements
1982-1984 All current/most recent jobs in CPS section; other jobs that are government-sponsored part-time or summer jobs, government sponsored jobs for those not in regular school, part of a tax credit program or any other government sponsored program in employer supplement; other jobs >= 20 hours/week & >= 9 weeks worked since date of last interview in employer supplements
1985 All current/most recent jobs in CPS section; other jobs that are part of a tax credit program or any government sponsored program in employer supplement; other jobs >= 20 hours/week & >= 9 weeks worked since date of last interview in employer supplements
1986 All current/most recent jobs in CPS section; other jobs that are part of a tax credit program or any government sponsored program in employer supplement; other jobs >= 10 hours/week & >= 9 weeks worked since date of last interview in employer supplements
1987 All current/most recent jobs in CPS section; other jobs that are part of any government sponsored program in employer supplement; other jobs >= 10 hours/week & >= 9 weeks worked since date of last interview in employer supplements
1988-1993 All current/most recent jobs in CPS section; other jobs >= 10 hours/week & >= 9 weeks worked since date of last interview in employer supplements
1994-2000 All current/most recent jobs; other jobs >= 10 hours/week & >= 9 weeks worked since date of last interview. In 1994 a skip error in this instrument resulted in the industry codes for some current/most recent jobs being missed (see errata).
2002-2018 All current/most recent jobs; other jobs >= 10 hours/week & >= 9 weeks worked since date of last interview; self-employed jobs for which the business is not a farm or ranch

Two sets of variables are available for each survey year that provide information on the type of industry in which a respondent worked. Verbatim responses to questions such as "What kind of business or industry is this? What do they make or do?" have been recorded within the NLSY79 questionnaires and Employer Supplements during each year's survey. These verbatims are then coded into various versions of the Census Bureau's industrial classification system. The Census system consists of 14 industry groups, representing more than 19,000 industries.

The first set of NLSY79 variables, 'Type of Business or Industry of most Recent Job (CPS Item),' reflects the industry for the current or most recent job of those respondents who reported working for pay since the last interview. Included are those whose survey week activity was "working" as well as respondents who were unemployed or out of the labor force during the survey week but who had worked for pay since the last interview.

A second set of variables, 'Type of Business or Industry Job #1-5,' codes the industry of up to five jobs including the CPS job (generally considered to be Job #1 in 1979 and from 1993 on) in which the respondent worked since he or she was last interviewed. Industry is not re-collected for the CPS job during the administration of the Employer Supplements. After 1993 all job specific information was removed from the CPS section and is only collected in the Employer Supplements.

Figure 1. Industries coding classification systems used in the NLSY79

  1. The 3-digit 1970 Census classifications (U.S. Census Bureau 1971) are used to code all job and training questions in the 1979-2000 surveys found in the questionnaires and Employer Supplements.
  2. Beginning with the 1982 survey, the 3-digit 1980 Census codes (U.S. Census Bureau 1981) have been used, in addition to the 1970 codes, to classify industries of respondents' current or most recent job (also used through the 2000 survey).
  3. For the surveys beginning in 2002, the 2000 Census codes and updated versions (U.S. Census Bureau 2000) were used to classify industries of all jobs reported by respondents.

For Census industrial and occupational codes, please refer to Attachment 3 in the NLSY79 Codebook Supplement.

References

McClaskie, Stephen L. "NLSY79 Industry Codes." Internal Memo. Columbus, OH: CHRR, The Ohio State University, 1988.

U.S. Census Bureau. 1970 Census of Population Alphabetical Index of Industries and Occupations. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971.

U.S. Census Bureau. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) [standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy]. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/naics/ 2007.

United States Bureau of the Census. 1980 Census of Population: Alphabetic Index of Industries and Occupations. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1981.

Comparison to Other NLS Surveys Information has been collected from the NLSY79 young adults on the type of industry in which they worked. Industry is collected each year from NLSY97 respondents for both employee (respondents age 14 or older) and self-employed jobs (respondents age 16 or older) according to the industrial classification system. For the Mature and Young Women, industry has been coded using 1960, 1980, and 1990 systems. The industries of Older and Young Men were recorded using 1960 codes for all years; in the final two Older Men surveys, industry was doublecoded using the 1980 system. For more precise details about the content of each survey, consult the appropriate cohort's User's Guide using the tabs above for more information.
Survey Instruments & Documentation The "Current Labor Force Status - CPS" section of the questionnaire collects the respondent's verbatim response, from which a code is assigned to the industry of his or her most recent job. The "Jobs" section of the 1979 questionnaire and, for subsequent years, the Employer Supplements gather information on the industries of all other jobs in which a respondent worked more than 10/20 hours per week for at least nine weeks since the date of last interview. Attachment 3: Industry and Occupation Codes in the NLSY79 Codebook Supplement provides the detailed codes for the Census and DOD classification systems.
Areas of Interest The Census codes for industries are now consolidated under a single area of interest, "Industry and Occupation." Former areas of interest are also present as secondary areas of interest.